re·duc·tion

3. The amount by which something is lessened or diminished: a reduction of 12 percent in violent crime.

4. A sauce that has been thickened or concentrated by boiling.

5. Biology The first meiotic division, in which the chromosome number is reduced from diploid to haploid. Also called reduction division.

6. Chemistry

a. A decrease in positive valence or an increase in negative valence by the gaining of electrons.

b. A reaction in which hydrogen is combined with a compound.

c. A reaction in which oxygen is removed from a compound.

7. Mathematics

a. The canceling of common factors in the numerator and denominator of a fraction.

b. The converting of a fraction to its decimal equivalent.

c. The converting of an expression or equation to its simplest form.

[Middle English reduccioun, restoration, action of bringing back to a former state, from Middle French reduction, from Old French redution, from Latin reductiō, reductiōn-, from reductus, past participle of redūcere, to bring back; see reduce.]

re·duc′tion·al adj.

reduction

(rɪˈdʌkʃən)

n

1. the act or process or an instance of reducing

2. the state or condition of being reduced

3. the amount by which something is reduced

4. a form of an original resulting from a reducing process, such as a copy on a smaller scale

5. a simplified form, such as an orchestral score arranged for piano

6. (Mathematics) maths

a. the process of converting a fraction into its decimal form

b. the process of dividing out the common factors in the numerator and denominator of a fraction; cancellation

c. cookery

d. the process of concentrating a liquid such as wine or stock by boiling away some of the water in it, esp in order to make a sauce

e. a sauce made in this way: a red wine reduction.

7. (Cooking) cookery

a. the process of concentrating a liquid such as wine or stock by boiling away some of the water in it, esp in order to make a sauce

b. a sauce made in this way: a red wine reduction.

reˈductiveadj

re•duc•tion

(rɪˈdʌk ʃən)

n.

1. the act or process of reducing, or the state of being reduced.

2. the amount by which something is reduced.

3. a form produced by reducing; a copy on a smaller scale.

4. Biol. meiosis, esp. the first meiotic cell division in which the chromosome number is reduced by half.

re·duc·tion

(rĭ-dŭk′shən)

1. Mathematics The changing of a fraction into a simpler form, especially by dividing the numerator and denominator by a common factor. For example, the fraction 8/12 can be reduced to 4/6 , which can be further reduced to 2/3 , in each case by dividing both the numerator and denominator by 2.

2. Chemistry A chemical reaction in which an atom or ion gains electrons, thus undergoing a decrease in valence. If an iron atom having a valence of +3 gains an electron, the valence decreases to +2. Compare oxidation.

reduction

The creation of lanes through a minefield or obstacle to allow passage of the attacking ground force.

reduction

1. The reverse of oxidation.

2. A surgical method of restoring an original relationship, for example by manipulating bones or hernias back into the original position.

In piecework they would reduce the time, requiring the same work in a shorter time, and paying the same wages; and then, after the workers had accustomed themselves to this new speed, they would reduce the rate of payment to correspond with the reduction in time

I found them to be the perfect isolation of prisoners - so that no one man in confinement there, knew anything about another; and the reduction of prisoners to a wholesome state of mind, leading to sincere contrition and repentance.

The only available standard was the market price, and this he rejected as being fixed by competition among capitalists who could only secure profit by obtaining from their workmen more products than they paid them for, and could only tempt customers by offering a share of the unpaid-for part of the products as a reduction in price.

For each question answered he asked two reals, and for some he made a reduction, just as he happened to feel the pulse of the questioners; and when now and then he came to houses where things that he knew of had happened to the people living there, even if they did not ask him a question, not caring to pay for it, he would make the sign to the ape and then declare that it had said so and so, which fitted the case exactly.

Referring the examination of the principle itself to another place, as has been already mentioned, it will be sufficient to remark here that, in the sense of the author who has been most emphatically quoted upon the occasion, it would only dictate a reduction of the SIZE of the more considerable MEMBERS of the Union, but would not militate against their being all comprehended in one confederate government.

And if we may argue from the degree of liberty retained even under septennial elections, and all the other vicious ingredients in the parliamentary constitution, we cannot doubt that a reduction of the period from seven to three years, with the other necessary reforms, would so far extend the influence of the people over their representatives as to satisfy us that biennial elections, under the federal system, cannot possibly be dangerous to the requisite dependence of the House of Representatives on their constituents.

de Treville had served him so faithfully in his wars against the league that in default of money--a thing to which the Bearnais was accustomed all his life, and who constantly paid his debts with that of which he never stood in need of borrowing, that is to say, with ready wit--in default of money, we repeat, he authorized him, after the reduction of Paris, to assume for his arms a golden lion passant upon gules, with the motto Fidelis et fortis.

Many speakers to the House the other night in the debate on the reduction of armaments seemed to show a most lamentable ignorance of the conditions under which the British Empire maintains its existence.

Norris, on quitting the Parsonage, removed first to the Park, and afterwards to a small house of Sir Thomas's in the village, and consoled herself for the loss of her husband by considering that she could do very well without him; and for her reduction of income by the evident necessity of stricter economy.

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